Wendy J. Sloboda | |
---|---|
Born | 1967/1968[1] |
Nationality | Canadian |
Alma mater | University of Lethbridge |
Occupation | Fossil collector |
Years active | 1987–present |
Known for | Fossil discoveries |
Wendy Sloboda is a Canadian fossil hunter from Warner, Alberta. She has made fossil discoveries of dinosaurs and other extinct animals on several continents, with finds in Canada, Argentina, Mongolia, France, and Greenland.[2] She is commemorated in name of the horned dinosaur Wendiceratops, remains of which she discovered in 2010, as well as the fossil footprint Barrosopus slobodai which she discovered in 2003.[3][4]
In 1987, as a teenager, Sloboda discovered fossil eggshells in southern Alberta which she passed on to scientists, who uncovered multiple nests of hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinosaurs) including fossilized embryos.[5][6] She enrolled at the University of Lethbridge in 1989 and in the summer of 1990, discovered a hadrosaur skeleton.[7] She worked for sixteen years as a paleontological technician at the Royal Tyrrell Museum and started her own business, Mesozoic Wrex Repair, a fossil preparation and casting company, in 2001.[3][8] She earned B.A. in history from the University of Lethbridge in 2001.[3][9]
Paleontologist David Evans, of the Royal Ontario Museum calls Sloboda "basically a legend in Alberta. She's probably one of the best dinosaur hunters in the world."[4] Her discoveries include the first pterosaur bonebed in North America,[10] and a pterosaur leg showing evidence of predation by a small dinosaur[11] that inspired author Daniel Loxton's 2013 book Pterosaur Trouble.[12]
Sloboda has made numerous discoveries in Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park, including fossil skulls of Corythosaurus, ankylosaurs (including Euoplocephalus) and crocodilians.[13] In 1999, she discovered and prepared the first known fossils of a gravid (egg-containing) turtle.[14][15] In 2005, along with paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky, she described the oogenus Reticuloolithus: fossilized eggshells found in Alberta and Montana, believed to have been laid by maniraptoran dinosaurs such as oviraptorosaurs or dromaeosaurids.[16]
In 2003, while working in South America, Sloboda discovered a fossil footprint in Plaza Huincul, Argentina. The footprint was described as a new ichnospecies by paleontologists Rodolfo Coria, Philip J. Currie, Alberto Garrido, and David Eberth, who honored Sloboda by naming it Barrosopus slobodai, which translates as "Sloboda's muddy foot".[17]
In 2010, Sloboda discovered a rock containing a bone fragment in Southern Alberta, between the Milk River and the Canada-US border.[4] Evans and Ryan described the remains as a new genus and species, dubbed Wendiceratops pinhornensis, with the genus name combining Sloboda's first name with the suffix "-ceratops", common in horned dinosaur names.[18] In celebration of having a genus named after her, Sloboda had a drawing of the dinosaur and its scientific name tattooed on her arm.[4]